Time of Dying
by The Barn Cat
Summary: Songfic. Nioko's past, basically. It is recommended that all three songfics are read before the story which is currently not up yet .


**This is Nioko's songfic/past. Wow, I'm quite amazed I actually own all these characters... This is for a story I'm going to write soon. Enjoy!**

_On the ground I lay  
Motionless in pain  
I can see my life flashing before my eyes_

Nioko stared into the sky, silently willing his life, the past away. Why had Saiyan destroyed the girl he, Nioko, loved. He had hated the other boy from the moment he saw him. He had seen what Saiyan would do to Hyaka. In one of his dreams, he had seen how Saiyan would kill the girl inside. How he would leave her an empty shadow of human form. He had warned his pretty teammate, but she wouldn't listen.

_Did I fall asleep  
Is this all a dream  
Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare_

Anger arose in the young ninja. His teammates. Both of them had been through life-scarring events that left them alone in the world and he, the one of an unexciting past, had been stuck with a father who died of illness and a widowed mother. No murders, no hatred. Nothing. He hated his family for not being murdered, but he had to love them for being alive and there for him when life was hard.

_I will not die  
I will survive_

Love. He hated it with all his heart. It had broken him as a man and as a son. His mother was kind, but his father was strict. And the boy had loved the man so dearly. Until the day anger took over his conscience and killed his love.

_I will not die, I'll wait here for you  
I feel alive when you're beside me  
I will not die, I'll wait here for you  
In my time of dying_

Flashback 

A delicate-looking seven year old tore through the streets of Konoha, rushing home. He was being sent home early. He neared his home and burst through the doors of his parents' bedroom. His mother, a beautiful young woman, was weeping by the bedside. She glanced up to see the brown-haired boy standing there, tears pricking the corners of his eyes. He knew what was happening.

_On this bed I lay  
Losing everything  
I can see my life passing me by_

"Honey," she spoke sweetly. "Nioko, dear, come here. Let us say good-bye together." The little boy nodded and slowly made his way to his mother's side. She took his hand and pulled him closer to her, wrapping her arms protectively around her son. She gently kissed his cheek. The boy was still shocked, tears freely flowed as he watched the handsome young man, his father, lying on the bed. 

_Was it all too much  
Or just not enough  
Wake me up, I'm living a nightmare_

The man turned his head so he could watch his son in his last moments of his too-short life. He groaned as he painfully lifted his arm to rest his heavy hand on his boy's shoulder. "I…am so very," he flinched in pain, "proud of you, my son. Be good…to your mother…take care…of her for me, okay?" The boy nodded slowly, moving his little hand to rest on his father's. 

_I will not die  
I will survive_

The man then moved his hand to touch his wife's delicate face one last time. "I…love you…both of you…please, do not…dwell in…the past…instead, focus…on the future," he whispered. The boy looked up to his mother's face. She had placed one hand on her husband's and her beautiful face was red with tears.

_I will not die, I'll wait here for you  
I feel alive when you're beside me  
I vwill not die, I'll wait here for you  
In my time of dying_

She gasped and the boy's attention snapped back to his father. His eyes were closed and his breath was gone. He touched the chilling skin of the man's face. "Fa-father?" he squeaked. "D-don't leave me! I n-need you! Mother n-needs you!" The woman smiled sadly at her son's attempts to bring back the man they both needed and loved so dearly. She kissed the top of the boy's head and drew him into a hug. 

End Flashback

_I will not die, I'll wait here for you  
I feel alive when you're beside me  
I will not die, I'll wait here for you  
In my time of dying_

Nioko moved his gaze to rest on his father's gravestone. It wasn't fair. He was so young. The man was only thirty when he had died. And his wife. She was only twenty-seven. In Nioko's opinion, they were both far too young to experience this tragedy. He was never the same when his father died. His mother, she tried so hard to help him lead a normal life, but the seven years of her broken masquerade had left her looking aged beyond her years. He eyes were worn and sleep-deprived. He knew the woman spent many nights still in tears. He touched the gravestone and sunk to his knees, tears welling in his eyes. 

_I will not die, I'll wait here for you  
I will not die, when you're beside me  
I will not die, I'll wait here for you  
In my time of dying_


End file.
